In a bit to monitor and regulate the service provided onboard aircraft, American Airlines has reportedly begun to introduce service analysts to flights. The move, which has upset some flight attendants, sees American Airlines employees sat in passenger seats reviewing service. According to veteran flight attendants, the job role of "service analyst" is new, and have been spotted on a number of flights recently. With a cabin crew of 27,000, the carrier is clearly concerned that the level of service provided varies between person to person.

6,700 Flights Per Day

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With around 6,700 flights each day, the service found aboard American Airlines' flights is bound to vary. As such, the new service analysts have been introduced to attempt to combat these discrepancies. The service analysts are seated as passengers on services. In fact, as seated as passengers, they do not form part of the official cabin crew on the flight. As such, they should perform more of a mystery customer role than that of somebody working with the crew. Despite this, the Chicago Business Journal has received evidence that the service analyst on a specific flight identified himself and helped with "everything from boarding to service".

Concern Regarding New Crew

One reason for the move to introducing Service Analysts could be a concern that new crew are not correctly trained. This is as American Airlines has recently streamlined their training process. In potentially an effort to save money on training, the process is shorter, with more emphasis placed on "on the job" training. American Airlines could be concerned that new cabin crew are not following the "Onboard Service Manual" closely enough. According to sources, because of the way that the seniority of crew factors plays into the allocation of flights, a number of flights are largely served by relatively new flight attendants.

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Level Of Checks The Same

While confirming that these checks do exist, Amercian Airlines insisted to Simple Flying that the frequency of checks has not increased recently. A statement from American Airlines read: "From time to time, members of our flight service team ride along on flights to ensure our planned service is running smoothly and as designed, but we have not increased these rides recently." Before Adding: "As it relates to customer service training, all of our new hire flight attendants receive onboard service training when they begin. Additionally, we’ve put them through two rounds of company-wide customer service training we initiated last year – Elevate the Everyday Experience. Safety is our top priority, but after that, nothing is more important to us than improving the customer experience."

Have you witnessed differing service on American Airlines flights? Let us know in the comments down below!